SELF-INSURANCE ADMINISTRATION/CAPTIVES IN A HARDENING MARKET by Carol Hammes Self-insurance programs, captives, and risk retention groups will grow dramatically as premiums increase. U...

SELL YOURSELF AND YOUR AGENCY Karen Flaherty, president, Professional Training Systems, Inc., conducted a telephone survey of 50 independent insurance agencies to evaluate how well agencies responded...

We'd like to introduce ourselves. We're (Your Agency Name), and we've been in business in ( ) for more than ( ) years. It's been our...

Although the technology is in place to sell insurance via the Net, consumers aren’t giving up the one night a year when they sit in their living rooms and listen to their agent pontificate about the advantages of "Plan A" versus "Plan B."

This dynamic might be changing. Insurers have cleared a huge hurdle for online sales — the need for a customer signature — either by using credit cards to bind coverage until the policy can be issued or by legalizing electronic signatures. Despite this advance, a very low percentage of insurance transactions are being handled online.

Dear (Customer Name): Can your Auto or Homeowners coverage help you get a better deal on your Life insurance policy? The answer is YES - if your...

Situation: Our agency has several thousand personal lines insureds, and we have written mortgage reduction life insurance-reducing term-on many. But we're not writing much of anything else in personal lines Life or Health, partly because our life producer is uncomfortable with that market.
I know there's more to life than reducing term, but what can I as agency president-not a Life expert at all-do about developing more business from that potential? (Our commercial accounts are handled well by other life producers.)

SELLING THE CHARITABLE POLICY Want an easy, effective way to enable people to do what they want to do-help their favorite charities and the community? Agents also help themselves and the agency. Like...

SELLING: GOT QUESTIONS? by Bill Hoos When you meet potential buyers, do you ask or do you tell? If youre like most salespeople, you probably do the latter. In fact, you probably te...

SERVICE: FUMBLING THE BALL by Brenda French Part one of this series by Brenda French takes a look at how poor service is costing the industry. The next two articles will discuss th...

SETTING APPOINTMENTS WITH QUALIFIED PROSPECTS TELEMARKETING SCRIPT Producer: Hello (PROSPECT NAME), my name is (NAME). I am with (ABC AGENCY) insurance. Several months ago we spoke brief...